


Still Human

by rubylily



Category: Red Garden
Genre: Angst, F/F, Unrequited Love, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-28
Updated: 2013-08-28
Packaged: 2017-12-24 21:12:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/944711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubylily/pseuds/rubylily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate's new body seems more prone to sickness and stress, and eventually vomiting becomes routine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Still Human

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for bloodyvalentine, with vomiting as the prompt.

Kate Ashley had rarely ever gotten sick. She had prided herself on that, never missing a day of school to illness. It had made her parents and teachers proud.

But this new body, as cold as it was, seemed more prone to sickness.

She stood in front of a sink in the school's restroom, holding onto the sides as she bent over and vomited again. She had eaten little today, so what did she have left in her to vomit? How many times today had she vomited already?

Her stomach always ached lately, and every time she took a bite of food, she felt it was just going to come back up later. She had taken to skipping breakfast in the morning, and she wondered how much longer she would be able to hide that from her parents and sister.

"Ugh… this is horrible…" Kate muttered to herself. She stared into the sink; her vomit was almost clear and didn't even smell that terrible. It was mostly water and some stomach acids, she figured. It hadn't even tasted as bad as it usually did. Milk and orange juice tasted the worst coming back up, so she had cut those out of her diet entirely.

Not that she had really wanted to, she thought bitterly, and she wouldn't have had to if she hadn't been ripped from her normal life. How many of those strange beast men had she killed? How much longer would she, Claire, Rose, and Rachel have to fight them? Lula had told them that it never got any easier, but if they had a strong enough drive to survive, they would be able to endure and live.

And Kate didn't want to die, not at the hands of those monsters. To survive, she had to beat them repeatedly with some kind of blunt object, like a baseball bat, until their brains were bashed in and they stopped moving…

The thought of that made Kate vomit again.

"Kate, you've been in here for a while," Paula said as she stepped into the restroom. "Are you all right?"

"Paula…" was Kate's response as she looked up, and a little bit of vomit still dripped from her mouth.

Paula walked over to the sink and put her hand in, rubbing some of the residue between her fingers. "You keep vomiting lately," she said, frowning. "If you're not feeling well, you can call your parents to take you home."

Kate shook her head. "No, it's just stress, that's all." That wasn't technically a lie, but this "stress" was unlikely to go away anytime soon. Vomiting this much couldn't be healthy, she knew, but would it really affect this cold, inhuman body of hers? She doubted it.

"Oh, Kate…" Without warning, Paula took a few steps toward Kate and kissed the corner of her mouth, her lips brushing against some of the remaining vomit.

Kate jerked back quickly. "Paula, what are you doing? You might get sick!"

"I'm sorry, Kate," Paula replied, her expression forlorn as she touched her lips. "That was too forward of me. I just want to comfort you, even if it's only a little."

Silent, Kate wiped her mouth with a piece of paper towel. "Maybe… maybe there is something wrong with me. It's not normal to vomit so much…"

"No, there's nothing wrong with you, Kate." Paula's voice was firm, but Kate noticed that her hands were shaking. "It's normal to vomit when you're sick or stressed. It means you're still human."

Kate turned her eyes from Paula's gaze. Still human? What did she mean by that? "If you say so."

Paula touched Kate's cheek. "Remember Kate, I'll always be here for you, even if you can't tell me what's wrong," she said in a gentler tone.

"Thank you, Paula." Kate tried to smile. Even if she could tell Paula what was wrong, Paula would never understand. But she was thankful for that - Paula was still alive, and no one deserved to go through that horror.

Together they left the restroom, with Kate following Paula closely. She still felt like she needed to vomit, but she didn't want to worry Paula any further. She just had to keep pretending everything was normal.


End file.
